302 THE WILD-FOWLER. 



were taken from the nest just before being- able to fly ; they were 

 then shut up in coops and fed on curds a short time, upon which diet 

 their flesh much improved in flavour* ; thus they brought a hberal 

 remuneration to the fen-fowler, who sold them at an advanced 

 price to such as could afford to invest in such delicacies. 



Lapwing-s are still tolerably abundant in the fens and marshes of 

 the eastern coast ; and they used to be especially so, in the parish 

 of Little Oakley, near Harwich ; where there is an island consisting 

 of about two hundred acres, called " Pewit Island" — from the 

 numbers of birds of that species which frequented it.f 



CAPTURING PLOVERS WITH NETS AND SNARES. 



Plovers are also taken by fen-fowlers in day nets : a practice as 

 old as any method of fowling' extant, and one which is used in 

 France and the Netherlands, as well as England, Scotland, and 

 Ireland. 



The proceedings connected with the day or clap net are already 

 described under the head " Ancient Fowling." The net is spread just 

 before twilight, and in the dusk of the evening the plovers are enticed 

 by call-birds to alight within its meshes, when the fowler imme- 

 diately secures them. Helme states that he has seen a dozen, and 

 sometimes two dozen taken at a pull : they come in such closely- 

 packed flights. I 



They are easily captured in these nets during open weather, but 

 not so during the frost. A great many are caught with nets in fields 

 of green corn, in which they delight to turn up the ground for worms 

 and seeds. But the greater numbers are captured on grass lands in 

 the fens. 



Plover-catching is by no means a difficult art : these birds always 

 roost on the ground : the fowler, therefore, with ordinary precaution 

 is also enabled to take them with a snipe or lark net, which is simply 

 a drag net with small meshes made of fine twine ; but of large size. 



* " Being young, they consist only of bones, feathers, and lean flesh, which hath 

 a raw gust of the sea. But poulterers take them then, and feed them with gravel 

 and curds (that is physic and food) : the one to scour, the other to fat them in a 

 fortnight ; and their flesh, thus recruited, is most delicious." — Fuller^s Worthies of 

 England ; by Nuttall. Vol. i. 



t Fuller's Worthies of England ; by Nuttall, vol., i. p. 494. 



;{; Jewell for Gentrie : a.d. 1614. 



